Hurricane Sandy set to hit Canada Monday night

Canadian travelers were being warned Monday to check the status of their flights as Hurricane Sandy started to impact the operations of flights across the Northeast.

Roughly 20% of the flights at the the country’s largest airport, Pearson International, had been cancelled Monday due to the storm, said Scott Armstrong, a spokesman for Greater Toronto Airport Authority.

“It’s that Northeastern Seaboard. Boston isn’t actually too bad. But New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington are the big focus,” he said.

The Ottawa International Airport Authority also said it too was experiencing high levels of delays and cancellations.

The Centre said rainfall amounts will vary from 20 millimetres in some areas to well over 50 millimetres in others. And it says that rain could change into snow over central Ontario.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, the storm was centred about 500 kilometres south-southeast of New York City, moving to the north at 32.2 km/h, with hurricane-force winds extending an unusual 280 kilometres from its centre.

The latest forecast says the rain is not expected to reach the southwestern Maritimes until Tuesday morning, but could persist into Wednesday with total amounts exceeding 50 millimetres.

Seven metre waves could lash the Great Lakes, especially southern Lake Huron, and large waves are also expected to pound Nova Scotia’s south shore.

It is a massive storm with tropical storm-force winds that extend some 800 kilometres from its centre.

Sandy was blamed for at least 60 deaths as it churned across the Caribbean.

The centre of the storm was positioned to come ashore Monday night in New Jersey, meaning the worst of the surge could be in the northern part of that state and in New York City and on Long Island. The Canadian Hurricane Centre said in its latest update that there is still a possibility the storm would get stronger before moving on shore.

Higher tides brought by a full moon compounded the threat to the metropolitan area of about 20 million people.

U.S. authorities warned that New York could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation’s financial centre.

Major U.S. financial markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and CME Group in Chicago, planned a rare shutdown Monday. The United Nations also shut down.

New York shut down all train, bus and subway service Sunday night.

HISTORIC SHIP SINKS

Hurricane Sandy’s massive waves forced the crew of the Nova Scotia-built tall ship HMS Bounty to abandon ship off of the coast of North Carolina early Monday.

“The 17-person crew donned cold water survival suits and lifejackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies,” a U.S. Coast Guard press release said.

Multiple media reports say that the ship has sunk and the Coast Guard managed to airlift out several sailors from the scene.

The ship was about about kilometres west of the eye of the storm and 145 kilometres southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, as many as seven people have disappeared on a boat in Caribbean waters roiled by Hurricane Sandy, officials said Monday. French officials said at least six of them are French citizens.

Dominica Coast Guard Commander Mervyn Pendenque said that his agency is searching for those aboard a rigid-hulled inflatable boat that left his country before noon Sunday en route to Martinique on a trip that should take no more than two hours.

Pendenque said Dominican authorities were searching the island’s harbors to see if the vessel is anchored to await better conditions. Authorities from French Martinique are conducting an aerial search.

The French Transportation Ministry told the Sipa news agency six of the missing are French citizens.

Sandy, which killed at least 66 people in the Caribbean, was far to the north, near the U.S. coast, on Sunday, but it was still kicking up waves around the island.

“We have a lot of groundswells and a little wind but nothing so great it would affect normal sailing,” Pendenque said.

‘WORST CASE SCENARIO’

Sandy stayed on a predicted path that could take it over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York on its way to a collision course with two other weather systems, creating a superstorm with the potential for havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. About 2 to 3 feet of snow were even forecast for mountainous parts of West Virginia.

The tempest could endanger up to 50 million people for days.

Many workers planned to stay home Monday as subways, buses and trains shut down across the region under the threat of flooding that could inundate tracks and tunnels. Airports also closed, and authorities warned that the time for evacuation was running out or already past. Utilities brought in extra crews in anticipation of widespread power failures.

The centre of the storm was positioned to come ashore Monday night in New Jersey, meaning the worst of the surge could be in the northern part of that state and in New York City and on Long Island. Higher tides brought by a full moon compounded the threat to the metropolitan area of about 20 million people.

“This is the worst-case scenario,” said Louis Uccellini, environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As rain from the leading edges began to fall over the Northeast on Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas, including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, 50,000 in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, N.J., where the city’s 12 casinos shut down for only the fourth time ever.

“I think this one’s going to do us in,” said Mark Palazzolo, who boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., with the same wood he used in past storms, crossing out the names of Hurricanes Isaac and Irene and spray-painting “Sandy” next to them. “I got a call from a friend of mine from Florida last night who said, ‘Mark, get out! If it’s not the storm, it’ll be the aftermath. People are going to be fighting in the streets over gasoline and food.'”

President Barack Obama declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, authorizing federal relief work to begin well ahead of time. He promised the government would “respond big and respond fast” after the storm hits.

“My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape,” Obama said. “We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.”

Authorities warned that New York could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation’s financial centre.

Major U.S. financial markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and CME Group in Chicago, planned a rare shutdown Monday. The NYSE shut down on Sept. 27, 1985, for Hurricane Gloria. The United Nations also shut down and cancelled all meetings at its New York headquarters.